Updated 'Rollercoaster,' a tribute to cancer patient Nancy Fox, slated for August publication

The second edition of Rollercoaster should be ready for a curious public next month. 

With its first major revision in 15 years, the book, which now carries the adjusted subtitle How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer or any other lethal disease, is up-to-the-minute insofar as medicines, treatments, and where to find help are concerned.

 

The volume, first of four I, Woody Weingarten, wrote since becoming a “retired” elder, contains several totally new chapters. It also features massive rewrites in virtually every other segment. 

Nancy and Woody, circa 1997

Nancy Fox, my musical-genius wife and muse who successfully battled breast cancer for more than three decades, is the heroine of Rollercoaster, a real-life love story and memoir. 

In effect, it is a tribute to her courage and ability to laugh and to genuinely enjoy her life despite having to forever fight off dangerous cells.

Anyone who wants to find information about my other three books should check out my website, www.woodyweingarten.com. 

 

Highlighted there are MysteryDates: How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, which features 70 favorite newspaper columns I penned; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a children’s fantasy aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds that was co-written by my then-8-year-old granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin.

'MysteryDates®' wins publishers’ association award for best cover of a nonfiction book

MysteryDates®, a VitalityPress book that carries the subtitle “How to keep the sizzle in your relationship,” recently won a BAIPA contest for best nonfiction cover.

It’s the second time VitalityPress books illustrated by Joe Marciniak and written by me, Woody Weingarten, have won cover awards from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association. The first time was for a whimsical children’s fantasy, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, which was co-written by my granddaughter, Hannah Schifrin, when she was 8 years old.

 

MysteryDates is both a memoir and a travel guide with hundreds of tips on what to do, how to do it, and where to go — locally, nationally, globally.

I’ve also written two other books, The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of the best newspaper columns I’ve written, and Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, which is a combination love story and guide to research, meds, and help.

 

For more information, or to order any of the four books, go to woodyweingarten.com.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner; new MysteryDates® book can make it zing

Hey, have I got the perfect Valentine's Day gift, one that can make the holiday zing, for you or a loved one.

It's MysteryDates®, my brand new memoir/travel guide that offers hundreds of ways to help you retain, resuscitate, or refresh the sizzle and joy that flared when sparks first sparked between you and your partner.

 

The lighthearted 282-page book — now available in paperback and e-book editions (the hardcover will be coming soon) — provides countless tips on what to do, how to do it, and where to go (locally, nationally, globally). 

 

Its personal anecdotes were culled from 35 years of dates that either I or my wife have concocted; the other tips emerged from endless hours of research.

 

To buy a copy of MysteryDates, just visit https://woodyweingarten.com and push a button for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, or another of your favorite booksellers.

 

My latest book, sprinkled with humor, explains how you can surprise your partner with a spontaneous lunch or a flight to a weeklong visit to a best friend in another state, how to eliminate the expected spasms of Valentine's Day or other special occasions and substitute a non-stressful and loving event, and where to go in your own 'hood — or across the ocean — to easily find delight. 

 

It can delight you just to read about free food or a $30 million gown, about beer-bathing or the International Spy Museum, about the annual testicle festival or the time when Nancy Fox, my three decades-long partner, and I helped turn each other into San Francisco clowns.

 

As the old television food commercial suggests, "Try it — you'll like it."

 

Pre-publication readers agree with that idea.

 

For example, Toby Adelman, PhD, RN, from Mars Hill, Maine, says, "What a delight. This is a book that, using the exciting concepts of creativity, spontaneity, and trust, is destined to be one of the best ‘relationship' books a couple might receive for a wedding present. Not to mention the incredible overview of interesting activities and places available for MysteryDates close to home and around the world. In a category of its own. Love it!" 

 

And Roberta Bienenfeld, an editor and translator from Raat Beit Shemesh, Israel, writes that "Woody Weingarten’s new book, MysteryDates, offers hundreds of ideas — as well as personal anecdotes — to get you out of your house and into a world filled with possibilities. A MysteryDate can be almost anything, from something simple — taking out the time to watch a sunset in your own backyard garden — to boarding a plane to Hawaii to visit a volcano."

 

Remember, all you need to do is click on woodyweingarten.com and then push your favorite "buy" button. You can check out my three other books on that same website, by the way. In fact, for a limited time, Amazon is selling the handover edition of The Roving I, the collection of 70 of my newspaper columns, at a major discount ($5.44) and, similarly, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, the children’s book I wrote with my granddaughter, is being discounted to $6.95.

Writer of 'Booby Blog' lauds 'Rollercoaster'

Santa Fe author who traced own cancer says 'Rollercoaster' can help both men and women

Hollis Walker

Hollis Walker has given my new VitalityPress book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," her stamp of approval.

To me, that's no little deal. 

Why?

Because the Santa Fe author-blogger-minister has first-hand knowledge of the disease.

And she's the author of a book called "The Booby Blog: A Cancer Chronicle," which tracked her life as a breast cancer patient. My personal feeling is that if you want to look at breast cancer — or any life-threatening illness — up close from both sides of the bed, you should check out both books.  

I certainly appreciate Hollis' review, and particularly liked her quoted my favorite author — me:

"Rollercoaster" is, in author Woody Weingarten’s words, “a partial memoir-chronicle, partial love story and cumulative guide to hope” written about his journey with his wife through her struggle with breast cancer.

"Rollercoaster," she added on her blog today (Jan. 26, 2015), is "an honest and vulnerable narrative" that pulls no punches. 


She also labeled it "an engaging, fact-filled, intimate story that promises to be helpful to men who are accompanying a loved one through breast cancer or any life-threatening illness."

Furthermore, she said, it's "not a bad idea for the patient to read, either.

"Honestly, I was prepared to be pissed off at this book, afraid it would be a tale of one man’s woe at having to prepare his own dinners while his wife was hospitalized for a mastectomy, or perhaps more politically correct yet nevertheless self-pitying drivel.

I was happily surprised. Weingarten has written an honest and vulnerable narrative that focuses primarily on his own feelings and reactions to his wife’s illness but never loses sight of the fact that it is she who had cancer — until he gets cancer, too. Even so, he discusses his own cancer only briefly, keeping the emphasis on the story of her illness and their joint confrontation with the threat to her life.

"Writing 20 years after his wife’s diagnosis, Weingarten relies on his and his wife’s personal journals to detail the events and recall their shared but sometimes wildly different responses. Being caregiver for a wife with cancer made him 'a one-man pet-sitter, nurse, servant and counselor' overnight — all while he continued to work a full-time job. He admits to being 'fragile, persistently on the verge of tears' and says that often, 'instead of wanting to be a caregiver, I’ve wished to curl into a fetal ball and let out a bloodcurdling scream.'

"Weingarten doesn’t pull any punches about his anger with his wife’s demands at times. He unflinchingly discusses the impact of her illness on their sex life and the fact that they went to individual and couples’ counseling. Yet the two also suffered in concert. 'The illness is chewing up and spitting out our lives,' he journaled at one point, and even when things seem to be going well, 'an invisible force yanks us back into Cancerland.'

"In addition to their personal story, Weingarten offers a significant review of clinical advances in breast cancer since his wife’s illness and effects of cancer on caregivers. Throughout the book, he also discusses his participation and eventual leadership in Man-to-Man, a support group for spouses of women with breast cancer…The men provide serious emotional backup to one another, particularly when spouses die. He remains involved in the group even today, offering his experience, strength and hope to newcomers, men whose loved ones are newly diagnosed.

"The author, who is a writer and editor by profession, has written an engaging, fact-filled, intimate story that promises to be helpful to men who are accompanying a loved one through breast cancer or any life-threatening illness. (And not a bad idea for the patient to read, either.)

"And it’s [the] love story aspect of the book that lingers when the last page is turned.

Weekly boosts breast cancer caregiving book

San Francisco paper bolsters 'Rollercoaster,' male caregiver's guide to light at tunnel's end

Woody and Nancy now

Abracadabra!

Like welcome magic, the first full-length newspaper feature about “Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer” has appeared.

The print version was published Jan. 10, 2015. 

An online edition followed.

Editors put an intriguing headline on the piece: A memoir about cancer from the other side of the bed.

Here's the story, reprinted by permission in its entirety:

by liz harris, staff writer

j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California

Their love story is sweet and also remarkable: Woody Weingarten and Nancy Fox met as teenagers in New York and vowed eternal love. They dated for a while and then, questioning their commitment, cut it off and completely lost touch.

Decades later, after a chance meeting in Mill Valley, their love rekindled. At midlife, they became husband and wife.

Seven years into their marriage, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Life became a wild ride.

In “Rollercoaster,” a book 20 years in the making, Weingarten offers an unblinking look at how breast cancer affected him and Fox from diagnosis to the present day. Its primary focus is to help male caregivers through the process, thus the subtitle: “How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer.”

“Rollercoaster” is also meant to help others navigate the emotional and physical ups and downs, as well as the mountains of confusing medical studies and different treatment options, that come with the disease.

Today life is good, Weingarten declares during an interview in the couple’s sun-drenched hilltop home in San Anselmo. With Fox cancer free for many years, they travel, enjoy a busy social life and pursue lifelong passions. Weingarten, 77, who retired in 2007 after 24 years as managing editor of J. (formerly the Jewish Bulletin), still writes for local newspapers and is working on a new book. Fox, 75, a pianist whose white baby grand piano is the focal point of their living room, still performs at local retirement homes, senior centers and JCCs.

Weingarten acknowledges that “Rollercoaster” isn’t exactly an easy read, but he believes it is a valuable one.

“My major aim is to help people — men whose partners have any life-threatening disease,” he says. “What you go through. What you can expect.”

He utilized his journalism skills to craft a love story/“memoir-chronicle” and comprehensive resource for anyone affected by breast cancer, with current, meticulously researched information on medications, scientific studies and helpful resources.

He also includes a short list of books written for partners of breast cancer patients. “In the last 15 years there have been 15 books published by [and for] men,” he says, while noting that “most of them are way out of date, not well written.”

Weingarten’s book is “positive,” he says. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.” It also is sprinkled with humor. In fact, asked for the most important piece of advice he can give

Book on male caregiving wins readers' praise

Reviewers give 'Rollercoaster' five stars, say it's 'frank,' 'eloquent' and a 'must read'

Readers are giving "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer" — the new VitalityPress book I, Woody Weingarten, wrote about being a male caregiver — five-star ratings, and calling it a "must read."

On Amazon, for example, certified retirement life coach Gloria Dunn labels it "a love story written…charmingly with both wit and compassion. If you only read one book about a couple going through the cancer process together, this is a must read."

"Black Blender" writes that it's a "terrific book on a neglected subject."

And Georgia McDaniel, one of my wife's "chemo-sitters" and a current breast cancer patient herself, writes that she "appreciated the insertion of various statistics or results from studies to punctuate a particular point."

Leah Garchik

Leah Garchik, a daily columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, notes that I've "written a memoir, an instructional guide, a journal of emotions…Anyone who has suffered through watching a loved one face possible mortality will find succor here."

Callie Raab, herself an author, writes she found the book "surprisingly frank, eloquent, moving, and enlightening…and a powerful reason for others in a similar situation to hope."

And on the Goodreads website, Fran French, a medical professional, concurs: "I laughed, cried and felt totally immersed in the words and feelings Woody Weingarten expressed. A must read."